There are numerous designs of electromagnetic moving systems like miniature toy railway systems that include a track and at least one vehicle located on said track.
There are known systems of this type, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,861,306 “Toy CoL, Railway” and U.S. Pat. No. 6,648,724 “Toy Railway Liquid Transfer Facility”, that include the track (platform, chassis) driven by an engine and vehicle mounted on said track.
Another type of system, for example. U.S. Pat. No. 3,729,866 “Toy Railway Vehicle and Switching Section”, comprises battery powered vehicle with electric motor.
The most widely known electromagnetic moving system in the toy industry is applied to miniature toy railway systems include a track comprising at least two conductive bands that are connected to an electrical supply which gives a power to the electric motor of said vehicle, —see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,217,727 “Miniature Monorail System”.
There is also known the design of electromagnetic moving system comprises a toy with a permanent magnet and a track carrying a plurality of electrical windings arranged in a row as it discloses by the GB Patent 979,985 “Electrically Propelled Toys”.
The main problem of all such known systems is that it is difficult to provide reliable speedy motion to such vehicles because of the lack of stable attraction between the vehicle and track, especially at higher speed on turns, also with vertical or nearly vertical sections as a vertical ring or spiral. Even when track sections are located horizontally the vehicle moving at high speed can lose stability and move from the track. So, known electromagnetic moving systems must include some special means to provide reliable attraction between the driven vehicle and the track. In some cases it is done by using magnets on the bottom of the vehicle and making the track from magnetic conductive (attractive) material. But these means in known systems also add resistance to motion, or
drag, to the moving vehicle and need much more power to achieve motion. Most such toys have special brushes that provide electrical contact with the electric grid. Or they might use batteries that do not require brushes, in which case they operate uncontrolled, or achieve control through the wires. or via a wireless radio or infra-red connection, but in such cases have limited operating time due to battery life.
The problems mentioned above were overcome according to the published Patent Application PCT/US 07/02917 “Electromagnetic Moving System” filed Feb. 6, 2007 by the same assignee. According to this design the electromagnetic moving system comprises of at least one track with a contact surface, at least one moving body located on the contact surface and at least one controller. The moving body comprises two permanent magnets of opposite polarities. But this invention does not provide enough attraction between the moving body and the track especially when the track oriented incline or vertically.
Therefore, it would be generally desirable to provide an electromagnetic moving system that offers further improvements to the above mentioned invention.